Teamsters decline to endorse Trump or Harris

Neither candidate made "serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business," said Teamsters President Sean O'Brien

(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters broke three decades of precedent on Wednesday, announcing that the 1.3-million-member labor union would not endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump this election. Fourteen Teamster board members voted against endorsing, three wanted to endorse Harris and none favored backing Trump. But surveys the union released on Wednesday showed members backing Trump over Harris nearly two-to-one.

Who said what

Internal polling showed "no majority support" for Harris and "no universal support" among the membership for Trump, the Teamsters said in a statement. Neither Harris nor Trump made "serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business," said Teamsters President Sean O'Brien in a statement.

The decision is a "blow" to Harris, The New York Times said. She has the "endorsement of the country's other powerful labor unions," but Teamsters backing "could have bolstered the Democrats' ground game in battleground states this fall." O'Brien's equivalence between the two candidates, after his private meeting with Trump and prime-time speaking spot at the Republican National Convention, infuriated some Teamster leaders and rank-and-file. Regional governing councils, Black Teamsters and locals in Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania broke with O'Brien and threw their support behind Harris.

The Biden-Harris administration is "widely viewed by historians as one of the most pro-union in modern U.S. history," while Trump as president "supported a labor agenda that severely restricted union power," The Washington Post said. But for many union workers, "issues such as gun control, abortion and border security override Trump's expressions of hostility to unions," The Associated Press said, citing Wayne State University labor expert Marick Master.

What next?

The opaque Teamster polls, criticized by some leaders as unsound, nevertheless "raises questions about whether other blue-collar unions" that endorsed Harris "harbor similar reservations about her within their ranks," said Politico.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.